Ice pack formed of vinyl plastic sheeting



March 5 M. ROSENTHAL ET AL ICE PACK FORMED OF VINYL PLASTIC SHEETING Filed June 18, 1949 INVENTOR6' NoAw/s FOJEWTHAL n/m JbsfP/I Patented Mar. 18, 1952 ICE PACK FORMED OF VINYL PLASTIC SHEETING Morris Rosenthal, Springfield, and Joseph Robinson, West Springfield, Mass., assignors to Pioneer Valley Plastics Company, Chicopee, Mass.,

a partnership Application June 18, 1949, Serial No. 99,936

This invention relates to an improvement in ice packs of the type in which a quantity of Water or. other suitable liquid is permanently enclosed in a flexible receptacle in which it may be frozen or otherwise reduced to a low temperature. In the construction of ice packs of this character it is advantageous and desirable that one side or face of the container shall remain smooth, at the same time that the pack as a whole may be bent or wrapped around the portion of the body to which the pack is to be applied.

Ice packs of this general character have heretofore been made of rubber in which two sheets of rubber are vulcanized together around their edges to form a bag. In one form of such bag one of the walls is formed with a plurality of tray-like recesses, the opposite wall of the bag being smooth. A bag of the latter description is shown in the patent to Bates, No. 2,152,019, issued March 28, 1939. In effect these prior rubber bags comprise a rubber ice tray, such as are used in making ice cubes, which is provided with-a permanent flat rubber cover. In these prior constructions the thin sheet of ice formed between the cover and the tray must be broken to give flexibility to the pack. In general these rubber ice bags are relatively stiff and heavy and costly to make. 1

Various attempts have been made to form ice packs of the permanently closed type from a vinyl or polyvinyl chloride sheeting, such as is sold under the trade name Vinylite. Vinylite sheeting, however, when thin enough for the purpose lacks the shape sustaining qualities of vulcanized rubber and furthermore easily expands under internal pressure. This latter property in particular has heretofore made it impossible to provide an ice pack formed of this material aifording a substantially smooth surface for efficient application of the pack. The principal object of our invention is to provide an ice pack which may be formed of vinyl sheeting and which is so constructed that when the entrapped water is frozen, one side or face of the pack will remain sufliciently smooth to be satisfactory in use.

Other and further objects residing in the details of construction will be made apparent in the following specification and claim.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates one embodiment of our invention:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view with the parts being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the structure shown 1 Claim. 01. 62-1) in Fig. ltaken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 before parts are-integrally welded together; and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view substantially along line 44 of Fig. 1." l

Referring to the drawing, the ice pack is the shown as'formed of two elongated sheets of Vinylite, or similar vinyl sheeting, generally indicated at I and 2. Sheet I is smooth and unformed. Sheet 2 is" shaped in any suitable manner, as by drawing dies, to provide a plurality of elongated recesses generally indicated 'at" 3. For reasons later explained, the side walls of the recesses are made thinner, as at 4, than sheet i. Preferably the crown portions 5 of the recesses are slightly thicker than the'side walls i. The sheets I and 2 are now placed, in a superposed position as shown in Fig. 3, in a suitable electronic press and the edges of the sheets are welded together in a well known manner along the side edge portions 6 and at one end as at l. Simultaneously the sheets I and 2 are similarly welded together between the recesses 3 as shown at 8. The welds 8 do not extend to the side welds 6, thereby leaving passages 9 between the recesses 3. As will be apparent, by these welding operations the recesses 3, together with the opposite portions of sheet I, form separate chambers H], which have arcuate walls on one side and a planar wall on the other, and which are connected together at each end by the passages 9. The ends of the sheets opposite the sealed end I being still open, water or other suitable liquid L is introduced into the several chambers ID, the water or liquid flowing through the successive passages 9 until a sufficient quantity has been introduced to provide the desired amount of liquid for each of the chambers I0. Preferably, if water is the liquid used, we add copper sulphate thereto in the proportion of about 4 parts in a million to inhibit the growth of bacteria or other vegetable matter. Other suitable inhibitors than copper sulphate may be used if desired. The up-to-now open end of the structure is then welded along the line H to permanently enclose the liquid within the device. Preferably the sheets I and 2 are extended beyond the end welds 1 and II to provide portions l2 through which open meta-l grommets l3 are upset. The side welds 6 are preferably extended as at I4 to include the end portions l2, and the ends of the portions l2 may also be welded as at l5 to give a neat appearance to the article.

the receptacles at 4. which are thus readily expansible than the wall I. At the same time the preferable greater thickness at the crown 5 of the receptacles tends to maintain the receptacles as a whole in a flattened formation.

at It in Figs. 2 and 4. This tendency, however.

is minimized by, the thinning of the walls of made more By the construction above described we obtain an ice pack formed of vinyl sheeting in which one side of the pack, namely, that formed from the planar sheet I, maintains suificient smoothness even under the weight of the enclosed water and when the liquid within the several receptacles is expanded by freezing so that the pack may be applied substantially as efiiciently as though formed of vulcanized rubber. Furthermore, the

:several receptacles II] are for the most part connected together by the Welded areas 8, andthe only ice which needs to be broken in bending the pack to its desired shape is that contained in the smallpass ageways 9. By our invention vinyl sheeting is 'made available for ice pack use, with substantial advantages tially; rectangular; superposed strips of flexible vinyl sheeting, one of said strips being shaped to provide a series of spaced recesses generally. arouate in cross sectionand extending transversely of the strip, the walls of said recesses being i thicker at their crown portion than at their side portions, :the second strip being planar and substantially of the same thickness as the crown portion of the recesses, said strips being welded together along their side and end edges and between said recesses, the welds between the recesses dividing the pack into a plurality of individual chambers, each chamber having a generaly arcuate wall formed by'the recesses of the first strip and a planar wall formed by the portions of the second strip lying between the lastnamed welds, the last-named welds terminatin short of the side welds to provide relatively small passages between adjacent so formed chambers, and a quantityof freezable liquid confined within the chambers and passages by said side, end and intermediatewelds, said strips each having end portions extending outwardly beyond the end chambers, and said end portions being welded together in face to face relation and provided with metal grommets providing means for securing the ice pack in position.

MORRIS ROSENTHAL. JOSEPH ROBINSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following. reierencesare .of record in the fileofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 254,265 Bonev Feb. 28, .1882 530,085 Bustin Dec. 4, 1894 699,778 Upham May 13, 1902 768,944 Kepler Aug. 30, 1904 1,059,627 McClimans Apr. '22, 19.13 1,433,303 Sampson Oct. 24, .1922 2,027,290 Reach Jan. 7, 1936 2,049,723 Pomeranz Aug. 4, 1936 2,225,764 Beal Dec. 24, 19,40 

